The Rachel Incident: Discover 2023's most anticipated summer read - a hilarious, heartfelt story of unexpected love from the bestselling author by Caroline O'Donoghue

Author:Caroline O'Donoghue [O'Donoghue, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2023-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

18

I was fully prepared for Carey’s second exodus to be the worst thing that would happen to me that summer. I was ready to simmer in it, to make a feast of my devastation. James mourned Dr Byrne at the start of the summer, now I would grieve Carey again at the close of it.

And then Ben fired me.

‘It’s not that you’re a bad worker,’ he said sadly, although I was. ‘I hate to do this. It’s just, I have to think of everyone here.’

‘Are you firing James?’

‘No.’

‘What?’ I screeched, all loyalty temporarily thrown out the window. ‘He’s worse than me.’

‘I know. But, you know, you’ve got a degree, Rachel. You can get office work.’

I couldn’t believe it. Since when did Ben care about us, or anything other than the phantom ‘industry’ he liked thinking he was a part of?

‘I don’t know if I can, Ben,’ I said. I sat, dejected, in his office chair, taking in every cracked ceiling tile. I had been working at the bookshop for three and a half years. Was this really the last time I’d see inside the back office, where I had bitterly counted out the morning float so many times before?

I couldn’t look at him. He felt too sorry for me. I just looked past him, at the printer with the sign above it that said, WORK USE ONLY, JAMES.

‘What’s my redundancy pay?’ I finally asked.

‘Well, you’ve got ten days’ holiday you haven’t taken.’

‘That’s it?’

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘Fucking hell, Ben. Is that even legal?’

He blinked. ‘I’m afraid so,’ he said again.

I glared at him. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t own the shop, after all. But the owner lived in Tipperary and we never saw him, so he might as well have.

‘I think you’re full of shit,’ I said.

‘You can work out the rest of the day. Say goodbye to everyone, and all that.’

‘Am I getting paid anyway?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, then I think I’ll fuck off. I think that will be best for everyone, won’t it?’

I left quickly, my shoulder bag slapping furiously off my bare thigh, rage coming off me in a deep sweat. I regret it now. In the years since there have been many studies done on the nomadic work life of millennials, and sometimes I feel like my adulthood has just been a case study for a Guardian Weekend article. I have never been employed at a website, a magazine or a newspaper for longer than two years. After that I am usually made redundant, or the website goes bust. Now, on the cusp of maternity leave and still undecided about whether I’ll return to the office full time, I’m starting to wonder whether I’ll ever be a true member of anyone’s staff ever again.

What if I had known, then, that O’Connor Books would be the longest I would ever work somewhere?

I called Carey as I walked down the street, his voice already more Northern, the good salt water of home buffeting away at him.

‘Aye, Jesus, Rache, that’s awful. What are you going to do?’

‘I don’t know.

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